


Remix (Oneshot)

by TIM



Category: Little Nightmares (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29715939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TIM/pseuds/TIM
Summary: Despite escaping the Maw, the Wilderness treats those within it no kinder. A nome awakens, hoping to find his friends who've been trapped and taken.
Relationships: Mono & The Runaway Kid (Little Nightmares)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 93





	Remix (Oneshot)

Seven wakes up to a breeze. The forest is a deathly quiet place, save the sounds of a sibilant shushing of leaves. He looks down at himself. A muted surprise awakens in his chest at the sight of organic grey. The feeling bubbles into distress, but he evens out to melancholy acceptance. Since leaving the Maw, he forgets more frequently that he’s lost his body. The oppressive air, claustrophobic spaces, and perpetual sway can’t remind him when he’s in the Wilderness.

The world, however, is still a dangerous place.

In the Maw, the closest thing to hostile wildlife were the leeches. Here, it is the crows that harass him. He’s too small to scare them off. They aren’t the worst part, however.

In his several weeks within the forest, he’s become quick to learn that he isn’t the only one out here. There are traps. And where there are traps, there’s a trapper.

He has watched a child snapped and punctured by iron jaws, has stumbled onto rotting bodies and corpses who had wandered from one cage into another.

He had hoped that escaping the Maw would be escaping danger. He had learned quickly that this was not the solace he sought, but a trade-off. One danger for another.

It was depressing.

There were times he thought to purposely toss himself into the leafy carpet of the forest floor; tempt the traps that lied underneath.

He doesn’t.

There are other Nomes here. They congregate to odd landmarks within the forest. Pseudo-buildings with trees that grow into them. Rocks and caves. Sometimes they are caught in the cages and Seven never sees them again. Despite what the rotting, neglected corpses of some of the cages suggest, there was someone out there collecting their prizes.

Seven likes sticking to the Nomes. They make him feel less alone, and less hopeless.

Hence, he’s chosen to investigate who’s setting up the traps. He wants to know if the Nomes who get taken are still alive, and if he can help them.

He’s so tired of losing friends.

With a quiet grunt, he pushes himself up. 

\--

Seven had expected to find cages of Nomes, imagery similar to the Maw’s of kids in boxes. In the shadow of the vent, he’s surprised to see a child sitting in the open in the room, clutching a bear tightly to their chest. Unlike most children, this one is wearing a paper bag with eye-holes over their head. It’s a peculiar sight.

The vent squeaks as Seven tries its bars, and the child jerks its attention to him. A wary tension lines their shoulders, a pale hand to the ground as they push themselves to a crouch. They're ready to dart.

Seven doesn’t know what to do. He just stands, and the kid just stares. There seems to be a moment where the kid’s caution turns to curiosity as their shoulders loosen, and a hand begins to reach forward - but the effect turns like a switch flip as the floor shakes to the slow, pounding footsteps of the Hunter.

The kid’s head snaps to the door where the handle is slowly turning. And that’s when the kid decides. They sprint to where Seven is, and the action startles him back into the vent.

His gut twists and wringes, and Seven, despite himself, hesitates as the kid manages to get to the bars. There’s a desperate grunt as they tug - and Seven realizes that they can’t do this alone. He scrambles forward. His clumsy Nome body trips, and he lands into the bars jarred and disoriented. Pushing through, he shoves, and the vent gate opens with a screech. Paper-bag kid scrambles in, and the gate clatters down.

The door opens, and there’s a stillness threaded with the harsh breathing of the kid besides him. They both jump as a hand slams onto the door, a guttural roar of anger bellowing from the Hunter. He patrols the room, peaks underneath the table, rummages through the empty cages. A noise of frustration as he circles once again.

It feels like an eternity as he does this. Seven keeps his eyes fixed on the Hunter, prays that they won’t be seen. Finally, the man leaves. There’s a raucous noise that follows him. He’s still looking for his missing quarry.

Seven looks over to the kid, who looks back at him with a curious tilt of a paper head. He wonders if they’re disfigured. Why else would you hide your head?

He quickly moves on from the thought. He had been hoping to find his friends. He doesn’t mind that he helped a kid along the way, but a sadness fills him at the thought of their fate in the stew he’d seen upstairs. Seven extends his hand and tries to ignore the twist in his stomach at the sight of grey.

The kid looks at it, and then slowly accepts it. He tries to help the kid up, but they mostly help themselves up. He figures the kid thinks he’s not very strong. Seven would snort at that. He’d just helped them open the vent. 

The kid is still staring at him. Seven finds it unnerving. Lots of kids are pretty open and expressive. Except the girl in the yellow jacket. She’d been difficult to read - her face seeming so impassive hidden underneath the shadow of her hood. Bag-head is similar, with only non-expressive eye-holes to go off from. Finally, they speak, and from the pitch of the voice, Seven realizes that this is a boy.

“What are you?” He rasps.

Mono hadn’t been sure what to make of the creature that had helped him escape. It looked… abnormal, but its small stature was seemingly harmless-looking. Between the Hunter and it, he had a choice and a gamble. He’d tried the Vent many times himself, his strength useless against its gravity. He still couldn’t quite believe he’d finally managed in with the help of this creature, having expected it to run as any animal would want to do.

It simply stands. Mono thinks it’s looking at him, but he isn’t sure. He frowns. “Can you talk?”

Its head shakes. Mono inhales thoughtfully. Well, at least it could understand him. “Thank you…” He trails off, “For helping me.”

The Nome nods. It lifts its hand, as though pointing back into the depths of the vent. Mono hesitates. “Is that the way out?” It nods again, and reaches for his hand. The creatures feels paper-y, yet organic. Mono isn’t sure how to feel about that, but there’s a relief in being able to trust and rely on something else. How much? He isn’t sure, but he knows that he owes this Nome his life. So he follows it with a shortened gait, his longer limbs made slower to keep up with the frantic smaller pace of his newfound companion.

\--

Seven slams his body onto the door. His body weight is nearly nothing, and he almost flies off as the Hunter slams into it. He wonders where the hell bag-boy went when he hears a crashing thud behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he sees bag-boy, disoriented, staggering up to his feet. Besides him… A gun!

He’d widen his eyes if he had any. Bag-boy reaches for it, but it’s too heavy and the aim is swaying. Seven braces himself as he feels the door splinter open and send him forward. He scrambles next to Bag-boy, steadying its aim.

The world explodes as the two of them are knocked back. The muzzle of the gun is steaming. Their breaths are ragged. Seven grimaces at the hole in the door. When he turns back, he sees that Mono also is staring. It’s unnerving, like he’s fixating blankly. It’s hard to read him with that bag of his, but Seven then notices that there’s a shaking to his hands. 

Right, this isn’t that yellow-jacketed girl.

Seven gently reaches for his hand. This seems to snap the boy back to reality as he jumps and looks down at him. There’s a shuddering inhale. “Sorry. Thanks.” With his free hand, he grips his bag. It must steel him, because he turns around and starts climbing the box. At the top, he turns around again, and positions his hands expectantly to help Seven up to reach the window.

He’s not sure why he’s surprised when they’ve been mutually helping each other out this entire time. Maybe he’s still processing their newfound near-death experience. But he’s glad for the other’s initiative, and takes up on the offer. On the top, he reaches down to pull the boy up and they tumble down onto the other side.

Seven stares at the pale, open water that meets them. Dread fills in the pit of his stomach with the memories of the Maw.

He watches the boy tread forward, finding a broken door washed ashore. He begins to push, but there isn’t a lot of leeway. He grunts. It’s heavy. Seven skitters forward to help, but pauses. He turns to look back to the treeline of the Wilderness. His friends are here. He wonders if this boy would fit well with the rest of the Nomes. Moreover, it seems that the main menace of the woods is now dead. He stands, conflicted, uncertain how to communicate with the boy that it may be safer to stay.

Carefully, he tugs at the boy’s sleeve. When the boy stops his efforts to look at him, Seven gently places a hand over his and points to the trees. Desperately, he wants to say “Safe”, but this cursed body has no way of saying anything.

The boy’s bag tilts to follow his pointing. There’s a hope that starts in his heart, but it’s squashed as the other shakes his head.

“I can’t.”

Why?

He tugs a little more urgently as the boy restarts his efforts with more vigor.  _ Get away from the water. There’s nothing good there. _

The boy releases a frustrated breath, tugging his hand away from Seven and sags against the door. Seven points again at the treeline.  _ It’s safe. _

There’s a contemplative silence. Seven would hold his breath.

“Do you… want to head back?”

Seven nods and tugs on the boy’s sleeve.

“... With me?”

Another nod.

There’s silence. It’s long, and tender, filled with the sound of waves. He hears the boy breathe.

“I… I can’t.” An exhale, short, frustrated. Seven realizes he’s having trouble articulating. “I need to go this way.”

_ Why? _ He wants to push. What’s out there that’s more important that  _ assured  _ safety? It was something he’d been seeking for so long, and now that it’s here, he’s watching this boy toss it away.  _ For what? _

Seven’s almost mad. It’s - It’s a  _ waste _ .

Mono watches the Nome seeming to shake. There’s tension in its stance, it’s hands seem to grip into a fist. He connects the dots. It’s upset.

He doesn’t know how to explain without sounding crazy. There’s something  _ there _ . Something is calling to him. His entire being demands that he go  _ East _ and each time he steps towards it, he feels that he’s getting closer. And his body tells him,  _ you’re one step closer than the last _ ,  _ why not keep going? You might as well. It’s one less step between you and the goal. _ And that obsessive energy feeds in on itself every time he gives into it.

He’s tried to ignore it before. But it’d keep him awake, haunting him in dreams and static whispers on the fringes of wakefulness and sleep. This was something he couldn’t escape without satiating it. 

In some ways, he’s always been like this. Single-minded, and unable to tear away once his mind had decided.

As the Nome points to the treeline, he feels guilt. He feels disappointment that this is where they’ll part, but he’s also touched that the Nome seems to want to stay together.

“You can head back,” he tries to encourage through his raspy voice, “Without… without the Hunter, it’s safer.” Mono inhales. The air is cold and misty. “Maybe after I finish this… I can come back. And maybe we’ll meet again.”

He hopes they can, anyway.

Seven tries to process this. He’s even more mad knowing that the boy  _ knows _ it’s safer. Hearing him entertain the idea of coming back, however, staunches his anger. It must be important, he concludes slowly, it must be. Their very meeting had been Seven foregoing obvious dangers for the sake of rescue. He doesn’t know if the boy is doing this to  _ save anybody _ , but it must be important to forego danger.

Accepting this information, he cautiously treads forward. His feet sink into the sand as he begins to push on the door.

Understanding sinks into Mono quickly, and the boy follows the Nome’s actions. The wood breaks free from the confines of the beach. It begins to drift forward.

Mono hesitates, looking back at the Nome. Time is ticking too quickly, now. He throws his arms around the creature into a hug.

“Thank you,” He whispers.

The union is short lived and Mono hates it. Suddenly, he wishes there was more time, thinks that maybe he really should have just stayed on the Beach. Unknowingly he gives the Nome’s hand one last squeeze as he swallows down his inner conflict.

He turns and runs after the door, leaping to bridge the watery gap between them.

Seven watches the boy go. The boy curls up on his new raft, and hazards a look back over his shoulder. Seven lifts a hesitant hand in goodbye. The boy returns it timidly. The mist swallows him up, out of sight, and he wonders if he should've stopped him, tried harder to communicate the words he couldn't say. It was unlikely that they'd see each other again, he thinks somberly. He glimpses back to the forest. But he supposes that the forest and his friends would be waiting if he managed to beat the odds.

As he seats himself into the sand and stare out into the open water, it dawns on him that he never learned the boy’s name.

**Author's Note:**

> here's to my first fic on this website ever :') it's rushed and janky, but i hope you enjoyed  
> Based on my dumb doodles: https://www.reddit.com/r/LittleNightmares/comments/lqf6hz/boy_and_nome_become_friends_cont/
> 
> lmk if there's any interest in seeing this continued where nome boy actually gets on the raft with mono, bc boy do i have THOUGHTS


End file.
